Thread that shouldn't have been

Status
Not open for further replies.
NickWheeler

NickWheeler

Joined
Dec 3, 1999
Messages
9,437
The comments I posted here should have never been posted. Please carry on as usual. :)

My dogs are large...

DSCN5518.jpgDSCN4909.jpg
 
Last edited:
I'm not particularly bothered by newbies' WIPs. I wouldn't want to discourage new makers from asking for help and even showing off a little. With a few notable exceptions, the ones who have a crappy attitude don't stick around long anyway. Regardless, no one's twisting our arms and forcing us to read and/or respond to them :)
 
I am running a (very slow) WIP. I'm far past my first and second knives but I'm trying to learn better ways to do things. Hopefully a more experienced maker will see me doing something stupid and tell me a better way to do it. Well, that and because a customer requested the buildalong.

I wouldn't want to show my first knife. My Dad hid it in his desk because I wanted to throw it away while he wanted to keep it for the memories.

Oh and Nick, almost forgot to mention, MOAR WIP PLS! :D
 
I gotta agree with Nick. There should be some kind of hands on experience behind the posts. I've been doing this for seven years and still feel unsure about being capable of putting out an informative WIP
 
Nick
I agree with not wanting to show what I've done because it's not that notable.


james terrio said:
I'm not particularly bothered by newbies' WIPs. I wouldn't want to discourage new makers from asking for help and even showing off a little. With a few notable exceptions, the ones who have a crappy attitude don't stick around long anyway. Regardless, no one's twisting our arms and forcing us to read and/or respond to them :)
Click to expand...

School's out for the Christmas break so you will see a greater influx at the holiday break times.


Once one has done it, others will follow & since that's the "normal thing to do" that's how it's going to get done.


It's nice to actually see what tools and skills they have to work with instead of having to drag every thing out of them with question after question.


You can see almost immediately who will progress, advance and continue vs. who will not.

It will skew my ability to find useful WIP threads in searching.
If I'm searching for informative WIP threads, I usually do an advanced search with the maker's name anyway.



Mike Quesenberry said:
I gotta agree with Nick. There should be some kind of hands on experience behind the posts. I've been doing this for seven years and still feel unsure about being capable of putting out an informative WIP
Click to expand...
Quit being modest man.
 
If they are done with the tone that they know everything then its a bit misleading. But it can be seen as another way to ask for help.

Its so easy to put some pics together and showcase them these days that people are eager to show what they are doing. Its pretty harmless.
 
I don't have anything to offer that hasn't already been seen and done.

Robert
 
Last edited:
Having made one of the threads that might have caused this rant perhaps I can give my reasoning behind it. I make a "wip" thread to be helped. I have no methods and only know what I've learned through reading and watching talented makers like Nick do his thing. So my wip isn't exactly a wip its a let me post what I intend to do in hopes that if I'm doing something wrong an experienced maker can say "Hey dummy don't that." Maybe there is a better title for that type of thread?

For those that create a first or second knife wip thread with the intentions of giving their methods or advice I would agree that its wrong. As a newbie I tend to follow the advice and wip threads of makers who have been around a couple years because their trial and error can save me from the same mistakes.
 
Its a matter of tone; but we communicate visually these days. The norm is to post pictures to support the text. This is especially true when dealing with items such as knives, where a lot of the appreciation, lies in their visual appeal.

As for the look at me post; they are shallowly cloacked attempts at self aggrandizement from people who need a few more years of experience under their belts. :D

And yes I do like the new glasses; they give you a wild care free appearance.
 
Last edited:
I guess I didn't see it as much different than a "pick apart my knife design... Some of you professional builders wouldn't necessarily want to post up a design because its a proprietary thing... It makes you money... Wouldn't want someone claiming your design... But the new guy wip can be much like an apprenticeship via an online community... Sometimes just the vote of confidence... Sometimes the slap upside the head... I admit... I didn't want to do a knife untill I had gotten some decent steel... But I had reasons for doing it out of the steel I was given... And if I was going to screw up a knife I wanted to be okay with throwing it away and starting over... I bought $9.00 worth of sandpaper... that was the total cost of my build... Even a very cheap piece of steel is going to be $20-$30... And though you guys make it look Soo easy, I know from other metalworking experience that its not that easy... After building my first one I'm now even more excited to build another, and another, and another... Lol...
 
I've been making knives for 6 or 7 years by now, and I wouldn't consider a WIP
unless I was doing to ask for help. I don't think my skills are so well-honed ;)
that I'd offer a "how to do it" WIP, with the possible exception of soldering. But
so many other makers do such great work, that when they post a WIP, I devour
them to add to my skills. (Thanks Nick and many others)

Bill
 
Nick, you just don't know what is cool these days... check this out for an example!

[video=youtube_share;LrD7TIG5mNE]http://youtu.be/LrD7TIG5mNE[/video]
 
Robert Dark said:
Doggone it Fred, now I gotta go to the dictionary to see what you are talking' about. Is that one of them-there "Yankee" words?
Click to expand...
I just went to the A's and picked a big one. Glad you liked it. :)
 
I made my first knife on here with a rather lengthy WIP. If all goes as planned I will be doing another one in the coming months. My whole intent when I did and (hopefully) do my next is for the simple fact that I hope to learn from the seasoned guys on here and hopefully by me taking pics and talking about what I'm doing/plan doing I'll avoid making a huge mistake before I do it. My other hope is that if someone is undertaking a similar project it helps them know what they might be up against if they take on something they've never done. Case in point, my next WIP plans on being a Bowie with a hidden tang. Neither of which I've ever attempted. Now if I manage to pull a respectable hidden tang out maybe some other noob might be able to get an idea what they are up against seeing it happen through the eyes of a person in their position.

I consider the (personal) success of my first knife is directly related to all the help I got from the great members here. Had I just gotten to work and posted a "done" photo would I have made a knife? Probably, although maybe frustration may have gotten the better of me and I may have given up and slipped into the shadows.... Would it have turned out to be a nice looking knife? Most likely not.....It was all the advice I got from folks along the way that kept my head in the right direction and helped me get through all the steps properly for it to turn out the way it did.

To me, and I'm far from anything when it comes to making knives.... But I think WIP's should either be done with the intent of trying to learn as you go or should be something that a highly seasoned maker does so others can see how they do it. Essentially being a "watch over my shoulder and help me not screw this up" kind of thing OR Something along the lines of "many of you have commented on how you like how I do ____" here is the way I do it.

Just my .02
 
Status
Not open for further replies.
Back
Top